He was already one of the most well-liked people on the internet, but today
space station commander Chris Hadfield's ISS recording of David Bowie's
Space Oddity has sent his popularity out of this world. As he returns to
Earth, here are ten things facts about this most unorthodox astronaut.

Astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield ends his five months aboard the International Space Station with a version of David Bowie's Space OddityPhoto: Canadian Space Agency

1) Sorry ladies (and all of those who have developed a man-crush on him): Cmdr Hadfield IS married - to his high school sweetheart, Helene. They have three adult children.

2) Two of his children, sons Evan and Kyle, helped turn him into a social media darling. One, Evan, also sports a fierce moustache.

3) Space Oddity is not his only venture into music/space station recordings: in December 2012 he becamethe first to record a song in space, his own work “Jewel in the NIght,” backed by an acoustic guitar.

That's not Cmdr Hadfield's only historic achievement: he was the first (and only) Canadian to ever board Mir, the old Russian space station. He was also the first Canadian ever to do a spacewalk.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield: "Good to know that after 5 months, my Sokhol pressure suit still fits. It's what we wear in the Soyuz. High fashion."

4) The Queen sent him her personal congratulations on taking command of the ISS, stating: "I am pleased to transmit my personal best wishes, and those of all Canadians, to Colonel Christopher Hadfield as he takes command of the International Space Station". He was also awarded Queen’s Jubilee medal in 2003.

5) Yes, he has many, many degrees, including a master's in mechanical engineering and an honorary law degree. He was also a colonel in the Canadian Air Force, is currently chief of robotics for the Nasa astronaut office, and has flown over 70 different types of aircraft.

6) Space is not the only frontier he’s explored. In 2010, he was the commandor of NEEMO 14, a Nasa undersea mission to test exploration concepts living in an underwater facility off the Florida coast. NEEMO 14 used the ocean floor to simulate missions to asteroids, moons and Mars.

7) With 789,136 followers, he is one the most popular Canadians on Twitter - beating out actor Seth Rogen (764,130 followers), and falling just short of actors Michael J Fox (796,588) and Pamela Anderson (820,793). (Fellow Canadian Justin Bieber, of course, remains just a tad ahead of him with nearly 40million followers).

8)The town where he was born (Sarnia, Ontario) named its airport after him in 1997. A public school in Milton, Ontario, where his parents Roger and Eleanor live, is also named after him.

9) Cmdr Hadfield was raised on a corn farm in Ontario. He wanted to be an astronaut from the age of nine, after watching the Apollo moon landing on television.

10) Other astronauts have spoken of their envy at Cmdr Hadfield's internet popularity. Buzz Aldrin has said that he and Neil Armstrong would have loved to have tweeted their historic moonwalk, while Canada's first man in space, Marc Garneau, said such an outlet would have helped with the isolation of life in space before Twitter.

"You need that feeling that you haven't been abandoned up there. You need to feel that there are a whole bunch of people on the ground that are watching over you," he was quoted as saying. "I think the connection is much stronger now because [Hadfield] has all these people who are tweeting to him and he's tweeting to them."

The rush of thank-yous from people around the world in response to this tweet from Cmdr Hadfield last night stand testament to that connection.

<noframe>Twitter: Chris Hadfield - Almost time to leave Station. Hard to express all of my emotions, but mostly gratitude. I came here on behalf of so many people - thank you.</noframe>